The invention concerns an apparatus for moving objects or persons, including a support structure, to which is attached a stage, horizontally movable along it, with a rectangular support surface, girdled by an upper continuous conveyor belt, movable in parallel to the sliding direction of the stage and with a belt guide for a lower belt, parallel to the conveyor belt, where on of the belts can be driven by a belt drive, also including a sliding drive for the stage.
Such an apparatus is, for instance, known from DE-OS No. 26 26 638. In the design described there as well as in all other familiar devices of this type, the belt guide for the lower belt is shaped by an additional plate that is connected with the support surface. Here, the conveyor belt is moved in such a way that the lower belt is driven as a continuous belt by the belt drive, thus entraining the conveyor belt by friction contact. Experience has shown that, especially when smooth belt materials are used, the friction contact between the lower belt and the upper conveyor belt is not sufficient to pull heavy objects or heavy persons with the conveyor belt onto the support surface. In this case, the lower belt would slip without moving the upper conveyor belt. However, it is already known from the DE-OS method mentioned above how to provide a drive for the conveyor belt as well as for the lower belt. This, however, requires a more involved drive mechanism creating a drive connection from the belt drive below the stage to the upper loop of the conveyor belt along the sides of the stage. An apparatus for moving patients in which the transport conveyor belt is directly driven is already known from DE-AS No. 26 06 022. This only provides one border or edge for the stage across which the patient must be pulled up and again pulled down off the support surface. This allows the drive mechanism to be built near the other stage edge. This implementation solution is, however, not possible in the design mentioned at the beginning in which a patient, for instance, is pulled up over a stage edge onto the support surface and then pushed off the support surface again, over the other stage edge.
A further disadvantage of the familiar designs is that the total thickness of the stage, or both plates with the belts, respectively, is relatively great, because, for stability, the thickness of the individual plates must not drop below a certain value. Otherwise, due to the weight of the objects or people to be moved, the plates would severely bend which would make it more difficult or even impossible to change the position of the stage or the belts. On the other hand, the stage should be designed as thin as possible, because it has to be pushed between the patient and the cart.
One object of the invention is to design the apparatus mentioned at the beginning in such a way as to provide a reliable drive mechanism for the conveyor belt as well as a comfortable transfer of objects or people to be moved, but keeping the design as simple as possible.
This object, according to the invention, is solved thereby that the lower finite belt is attached at both ends to the support structure and, within the range of the free stage borders, perpendicular to the sliding direction of the stage, it (the finite belt) is carried over a bar, parallel with them and connected to the support surface, and wherein for part of its course, the lower part of the conveyor belt loops around the drive shaft of the belt drive into the support structure.
Since the design of the belt guide for the lower belt no longer provides a plate, but only a bar across which the lower belt runs at its turning points, it allows the conveyor belt to be operated by the belt drive designed below the stage. The design according to the invention, allows for a most simply designed direct drive of the transport belt. Complicated power transfer mechanisms, such as suggested in DE-OS No. 26 26 638 for the direct drive of the conveyor belt, can be omitted. In the design according to the invention, the drive mechanism for the upper conveyor belt is not only simpler, but also significantly requires much less space.
Within the area of the free stages edges, the support surface should preferably have a recess so that the bar guiding the lower belt can dip into it. Even if the thickness of the support surface is small in the area of the recess, it does, overall, not affect the stability of the support surface. On the other hand, this design allows the total thickness of the stage that must be pushed under the person to be lifted, to be reduced partically to the thickness of the support surface. This makes the pickup operation of an object or a person considerably simpler and, for a patient, gentler.
A further advantageous design implementation according to the invention, consists in that, at their ends, the bars are connected to swivel arms, set perpendicular to their longitudinal direction, and hinged to the support surface, pivoting around an axis, parallel to the longitudinal direction of the bar. This design allows the bars together with the lower belt, to be swung away from the support surface, or, respectively, the conveyor belt, so that all belt surfaces, especially the lower belt can be wiped clean and disinfected, whereas the finite lower belt in previous designs can usually be only partially directly cleaned. This point is of utmost significance when the apparatus according to the invention is used to transfer patients from a non-sterile area to a sterile area.
In a preferred design, in which the support structure includes at least one vertical column and a height adjustable lifting device attached to it to which the horizontally moveable stage is attached, according to a further characteristic of the invention, the moving parts of the sliding drive for the stage and the height adjusting drive for the lifting device are attached to the lifting device together with the belt drive. This means that all moving parts of the entire apparatus are incorporated into the lifting device and can be adjusted with it. This makes it easier to better encapsulate the moving parts in contrast to the stationary parts of the apparatus which, again, makes it easier to clean the apparatus and keep it sterile.
The design according to the invention, makes it possible to prevent sheets, clothes or the like from being pulled onto the platform between the two belts by araranging pressure sensitive contact elements within the front upper range of the bars and/or within the lower range of the deviation bars of the support surface, the contact elements being with the belt drive in such a way that they switch it off under the effect of a certain pressure threshold value being exceeded. These contact elements are preferably built as contact strips stretching across the entire receiving width of the stage.
If a patient is moved lightly clad or unclothed, such as from a sick bed onto the moving apparatus, according to the invention, it could be very unpleasant for the patient to be moved from the warm bed onto the cool conveyor belt. In order to avoid this disadvantage, according to a further characteristic of the invention, a heating unit has been built into the support surface. The heating unit is preferably to be designed as a surface unit, directly onto the underside of the upper boundary plate of the support surface where the space between the heating unit and the lower boundary plate of the support surface is filled with plastic foam. A power source, physically separated from the power network, is preferably to be used for the heating unit to produce a voltage of less than 220 Volts, preferably 60 Volts or 24 Volts.